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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24136984">Pain in Purgatory - The voice inside the void</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cmay/pseuds/Cmay'>Cmay</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Kakashi and Kaida [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Darkness, F/M, Lost - Freeform, Love, Purgatory, it's still not over, love after death, love is powerful, the after life</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:39:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,455</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24136984</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cmay/pseuds/Cmay</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kakashi and Kaida end up in a strange place after Pain has destroyed their village, their home. They are separated, utterly alone. It's too quiet, too cold, too dark...Will they be able to find one another and bring back the light?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kaida Hikari, Kakashi Hatake - Relationship, Original Character - Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Kakashi and Kaida [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1653595</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Pain in Purgatory - The voice inside the void</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi everyone! Here is the next installment of my Kakashi and Kaida series. I would definitely suggest reading at least the last two parts just to understand what's going on with the characters and timeline. This is a continuation and not so stand-alone as before. This work was written for Katie. She so kindly responded to my last story about these two and offered a wonderful idea. I ran with it. I hope you and Katie like it! Let me know what you think! Really, reviews feed my writing spirit. Katie, thank you again for the inspiration and kind words. This was fun. Cmay~</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kakashi’s eyes opened to absolute darkness. It was the kind of pitch that was almost tangible and felt like lying under a damp curtain of silk. He was laying on his back and it seemed as though he might have been floating on the surface of a still lake, one with no wind or fish present to disturb it. Even the delicate twitch of his fingers failed to create a single ripple.A deathly kind of quiet filled the black inky space around him but every so often a soft whoosh, almost like a whisper would reach his ears but he didn’t know what was causing the sound. He closed his eyes and nothing changed. It was just as dark as it had been with them open. He breathed in deeply and let the breath out gently. <em>Oh, that was the sound. I’m breathing.</em></p><p>His instincts told him he needed to gasp for oxygen like he hadn’t had enough recently, but strangely, the slow methodical breathing brought no comfort to his lungs and no ease of the strange ache located deep inside his chest. He tried again. Inhaling and exhaling in a perfect rhythm his body knew well. The soft sound of each breath bounced off of nothing and vanished just as quickly as it had come back into the void. He took another breath and another and still no true relief came. He then held his breath and found he had no need to continue to try to fill his lungs. He felt no increasing need to draw in more air. There was no discomfort other than the deep throbbing that emanated from somewhere to the left of his sternum. The thought should have worried him but he didn’t feel the need to be concerned. </p><p>He opened his eyes again and still, no light reached them. He wondered if he’d gone blind. He slowly lifted his hand to hover over his face. Had it always been so difficult to move? The sensation was like dragging his arm through cold honey but once he knew his hand was somewhere above his face he waggled his fingers as best he could. He knew they moved, he could feel it, but he couldn’t see them. He dropped his arm but it didn’t fall as expected. It gently floated down to rest against his side once more. Quite and still. Just like this place. He blinked sluggishly a few times as if to clear his sight and that felt strange to him too. </p><p>He laid there for who knows how long until the silence became too much and he began breathing again just to not have to listen to the nothingness surrounding him. He wished he could see. He didn’t feel unsafe or threatened but he also didn’t feel exactly comfortable either. Something was off he just didn’t know what. It seemed like a single second and a full year had passed while he blinked. Regardless of the time, he decided that he had had enough of lying around. He was never going to figure out where he was at this rate by lying still on an equally unmoving lake. He braced his hands against the surface he was resting on and pushed himself up. He was surprised to feel a solid floor under his palms. <em>Maybe not a lake then. </em></p><p>Each movement happened rather slowly and something that felt like a viscous slime began to creep and glide down his shoulders. He struggled to run a hand over his arm trying to find the annoying substance slowing him down but nothing was there. He bent his knee and pushed up from the floor to stand. The molasses-like sensations he had felt earlier began to ease and the invisible goo rolled slowly down his arms like a slow-motion avalanche and then dripped quickly like melting snow once it reached his fingertips. Each time he felt the invisible sluggish sludge leave his fingers in tiny droplets, it sounded like glass beads hitting marble. It was strange to now have this sound added to the mix of his breaths and soft footfalls when there had been nothing there before.</p><p>As he took one step and then another and another into the jet black darkness he felt his limbs begin to feel lighter, more normal. The tinkling sounds began to slow then faded completely. He almost missed the sound as he continued forward into some unknown eternity. The strange almost joyful sound reminded him of something yet he couldn’t quite picture it clearly. He didn’t know if his eyes were shut or open as he tried to focus on the thought that wouldn’t quite solidify inside his head and he frowned as the ache hidden behind his ribs deepened. He rubbed the tips of his fingers against the sore place on his chest as if to soothe it and continued to walk.</p><p>Inside his mind was a sudden flash of dark smokey gold, then bright crystal blue tinged with purple, and then the sound…a wonderful sound. <em>Laughter? </em>Kakashi paused in his steps and ceased his breathing. He couldn’t tell if it had been in his head or if he had heard it out there somewhere in the bleak emptiness in front of him. All he knew was that he wanted to hear it again. He rubbed at his chest harder as the ache began to throb and twinge and radiate outward from inside his ribs. The feeling was almost painful now but he moved his feet forward with a mission in mind to find that gorgeous sound once more. </p><p>~~~</p><p>Kaida felt like she was drowning. <em>Am I underwater?</em> She began kicking her legs and arms as if to swim but she didn’t know where the surface was. It was so dark and icy cold all around her yet she didn’t shiver. She groaned and heard no sound pass her lips. It was so quiet. <em>Where am I?</em> She called out into the darkness but still, no sound left her lips. She stopped her frantic kicking and pawing and found herself floating, maybe hovering was a better word, but she wasn’t sinking, wasn’t drowning. She really did feel like she was underwater but she was bone dry. Her throat felt tight like she had been crying but when her hand reached up to touch her face there was no moisture there either. This confused her to no end and she began to panic as a low hum surround her form almost like the electricity that would hang crisply in the air during a thunderstorm. She massaged at her hands trying to get the tingling to stop but it only caused the buzz to increase like a swarm of bees had landed onto her palms to create their hive.</p><p>She blinked rapidly as she turned round and round desperately trying to find any source of light that would guide her away from the oppressing dark and she clenched her fingers trying to ease the agitation. She swallowed thickly when a new trail of tears fell warmly along her cheeks but there was still no moisture when she reached up to wipe them away. The tingles were increasing and almost made her hands go numb with the vibrations. She flicked her wrists and the static finally began to dissipate. It now felt as if strings were being flung from the tips of her fingers with every shake of her hands. As the discomfort eased the panic returned when she was suddenly yanked downward. </p><p>Kaida pulled fruitlessly at the strings still connected to her fingers and they continued to pull her down. Down. Down. She pictured herself as a fish on a line and she had the urge to kick her legs to swim back up through the inky water that wasn’t there. “No! Let go! I have something I need to do!” As soon as the silent protest left her lips the tugging stopped and she was free. She wanted to flee but that sudden thought had her freezing in place and again she was floating. <em>What did I need to do? Think! Think!</em></p><p>Kaida’s head felt heavy all of a sudden like it had been filled with wet cement. She sunk down further in the thick water like world and thought maybe the cement wouldn’t be there had she let the string continue to pull her down instead. Her head lolled to and fro until she met an invisible floor and she tried to cling to the gravity by hugging her knees and curling in on herself. She crouched, absolutely unmoving, in the roaring silence and the cement felt like it began to expand as it dried. She figured she must have sat there for a long time. Her head felt so weighted now and she rested her cheek on a bony knee. The concrete or whatever was inside her head cracked loudly and pain shot to the outer edges of her skull. She could hear it shatter and with each deafening pop and crackle, a bright flash of color invaded her thoughts. White, black, green, red. So much red. The loudest snap came then and when Kaida lifted her head she swore she could hear the shattered cement jumbling around against her skull like so many rocks. Then a very vivid image of someone lying still, broken, bloody, in her arms played behind her eyes, and her mind exploded sending unseen rocky shrapnel to shoot silently away into the dark. She screamed, “KAKASHIIIIIII!” </p><p>The earsplitting shrill shrieking sound of her voice ripped and tore and clawed through the silence tearing the quiet that earlier tried to suffocate her to shreds. The weight of the unseeable water fell away letting her move more freely than before and she instantly began to run. Even though she couldn’t see, she somehow knew she wouldn’t lose her footing and her footfalls thundered heavily below her. Instinct and desperation were guiding her now. </p><p>~~~</p><p>The pain in Kakashi’s chest burst into a red hot fire and he doubled over and gritted his teeth at the pain when he heard his name formed inside of a terrified scream. It caused a jolt of panic to dance up his spine at the sound and he didn’t know why. It was not the sound he was so desperately searching for but it was the same voice. He swallowed and felt an unexplainable need to run towards it. Strange, his heart…it didn’t seem to speed up. It didn’t seem to pound behind his ribs like he thought it should. This woman was distressed, in need of help, he was running ever so fast to reach her but the organ didn’t react. It was as if it wasn’t there at all. He pushed those thoughts behind him as he ran. He <em>had </em>to get there. Wherever that may be.</p><p>Kakashi had no idea how long, far, fast, or where he was running. He only paused when the air around him became dense and colder. It felt as if he was now wading through an icy river and his movements began to slow all over again. This caused his brow to furrow and he let out a small gasp of shock as his feet left whatever floor had been beneath him. He felt his clothing shift about his limbs and torso as if he were now floating inside of a swimming pool but he remained dry. He glanced above him but there was no light. Where was the girl he had heard? “Hello?!” He received no answer but he felt whatever force that was lifting him begin to move him ever higher ever more quickly. </p><p>With a sudden jolt, his feet were back on solid ground and he almost felt normal once more but for the searing pain still growing deep in his chest. His eyes wrenched shut and a light began to glow and blind him. It hurt his eyes even through his closed lids it was so bright. He eased one eye open to glance down and plucked open the top few buttons of his shirt to see where it was coming from. Nestled directly in the center of his sternum was a small silver dragon pendant hanging from a delicate chain. The eyes glowed with a swirling of flaming green, fiery orange, searing blue, hot pink and the metal felt so warm against his skin. The light twinkled like a sunset against his pale skin and while he examined it and the tiny engraved kanji for ‘eternal’ resting on its belly, a colorful beam from one of its opalescent eyes shot forward into the black void. He twisted and turned the dragon in his fingers but the beam stayed pointing in the same direction. Kakashi rubbed at his chest as he began to follow the light that seemed to be beckoning him forward.</p><p>Kakashi faltered in his steps as he heard his name called out again. It sounded so faint, so terribly far away. He had to get to this person. They knew him! Maybe they knew where they were, how to get out. He picked up the pace and sent up a silent prayer that this light was leading him to somewhere other than this dark. To that voice. The pendant began to grow warmer and almost buzzed in his fingers as if it were excited as he ran. <em>I must be getting closer! </em></p><p>The darkness pressed on but so did he. He felt like this was where he had needed to go all along. The ache in his chest increased as another flash of ashy golden silk and clear blue-purple entered his mind and he realized it was hair and the sky blue rimmed in lavender was the color of her eyes. <em>Her. </em>He gritted his teeth trying to hold onto the image. The woman had waist-length ash blonde hair, it was whipping around her in the breeze and her bright blue eyes sparkled as she beamed brightly at him. She tucked a long strand behind her ear and his name left her pale pink lips in a loving whisper as she blushed, ‘<em>Kakashi…’</em> </p><p>Tears welled up in his eyes as a great longing began to bubble inside of him. He knew this woman must be important to him but he couldn’t remember why. He had never known love…or had he? He couldn’t remember. <em>Damn it!</em> He felt like his heart was broken…except it still felt as if there was no heart there to break. His name echoed around him once more but this time it was louder and he glanced down at the pendant in his hand. The beam had begun to fade and Kakashi cried out, “Here! I’m Here! Can you hear me?! I’m here!” </p><p>The light from the pendant flickered and Kakashi grasped it tightly as the light pulsated one final time and went out completely, “Please, no! I have to find her!” He stared into the darkness and listened hoping to hear footsteps, his name, anything. No sound came. Kakashi fell to his knees and braced himself on his hands. He could feel the now dark pendant swinging gently back and forth on its chain and he began to weep. All of his hope had been extinguished just like the light. He needed to find her, he didn’t know why but it felt it to his very core. He had to…but how and why?</p><p>He lifted himself up to sit back onto his feet and wiped angrily at his face. He took a deep breath that did nothing for him physically but the sound was welcome and it was familiar. That and the vision of the beautiful woman smiling at him and whispering his name were the only comforts he had in this waste of a world he was in. A nightmare. A dark and cruel hell. His frustration bubbled up in the back of his throat and he let out a loud yell of grief. The action did nothing to ease the pain, the uncertainty, confusion, and chaos coursing throughout his being. The image of the woman flashed in his mind again. He wished he knew her name. He hung his head and sat in the silence feeling depleted and ready to give in to whatever this was. He could lie down and just let the nothingness have him. Maybe it’d be better that way.  </p><p>The air around him suddenly pulsated and a warm breeze swarmed up like a caress across his face and he shuddered as his name was carried inside of it. ‘<em>Ka…ka..shi…</em>’ The air around him thrummed, knocked, ticked, again and again until the pulsing turned into a soft thump thump thump. He lifted his weary head and far off in the distance was a soft golden glow. He dragged himself upright and began to walk towards it. His hope was rekindled. It was as if the light, that whisper, had breathed life back into him. Every step he took was in time with the thump thump thumping noise that circled him in the dark. As the glow became brighter the thumps became louder and the pain in his chest began to ease. He rubbed at the dulling ache and stumbled clumsily with the relief. It seemed like his feet pounded on forever. The glow was becoming a shine bright like the sun. The thumps, heavier and now increasing in pace, offbeat, like there were multiple causes for the sound, kept him moving forward.</p><p>After a timeless interval of heavy rushed footsteps and need, Kakashi had finally reached the source of the light. He had to hold up a hand to shield his eyes as it pierced his retinas painfully. Its shape was large and oval and he found that within its gentle warm embrace the depressing cold was dissipating, the air seemed to have lost its heaviness, and the light continued to expand casting the darkness away as it poured out and away from the center of where it originated. Kakashi chanced a glance to his left and was astonished when he saw that anywhere the light touched, bits of grass, wildflowers, and a gentle babbling brook could be seen and heard. The light continued to shift outward and illuminate the space around him until the black void was no more. He glanced back to its center and his knees went weak. Standing where the light had come from was the woman. The one from the vision in his mind. The one he had wished to know and needed to so desperately find. She stood there staring at him while tears fell heavily down her pink cheeks. He wanted to fall to his knees. She had to be a goddess. She took in a deep breath and gasped out his name like it was the most precious of things, “Kakashi…oh, Kakashi…” </p><p>Kakashi clutched at his chest as the pain throbbed one final time then disappeared altogether. The thump thump thump suddenly became quiet and he felt instead of heard it inside his chest where the pain had once been. His heart…it <em>had </em>been missing. It had been with <em>her</em>. It had always been hers and now with her gentle whisper of his name, he remembered her, he remembered it all, “Kaida…” </p><p>Kaida began to sob as she stumbled forward and grabbed at him. He wrapped his long arms around her waist and squeezed her tightly, “Kakashi! I thought I’d lost you! I…I…couldn’t find you! I tried but it was so dark! It was so cold! So sad.” He ran his fingers through her hair and rubbed a hand up and down her back to soothe her, “Shh. I’m here. It’s okay. It’s all okay now. I’m here.” She lifted her head and her hand went to touch his face and she paused before gently stroking his cheek, “Kashi, where’s your mask?” He frowned and reached up to touch his chin and then further up to his forehead. Neither his mask or his headband were present. The then glanced down at his clothing and realized he wasn’t in his uniform. He was wearing a simple pair of black dress pants, a perfectly pressed untucked white button-up with the sleeves rolled flawlessly to mid-forearm and he had no shoes on. The then gently took Kaida’s hands into his to guide her back so he could see her fully. Her cream-colored long-sleeved lace dress nipped in delicately at her waist and the skirt flowed gently down to her ankles to flutter softly behind her. Her feet were also bare, “You look…like…a goddess…” She glanced down at herself and gasped as she pulled at the lacy flowing skirt, “What? Where <em>are</em> we? What’s going on?”</p><p>Kakashi looked around and the brightly lit meadow they stood in was covered in every kind of flower in every color imaginable. The brook he heard earlier was flowing steadfast and bubbling like it was chuckling at them as it carried wayward petals down its current. Tall willow trees peppered the area and the long tendrils of leaves swayed gently in the warm breeze and it sounded like they were whispering back and forth as if they had a secret to tell. Kakashi squeezed her hands and looked into her large pastel blue eyes, “I was able to find you because of <em>this</em>.” He reached into his shirt collar and pulled out the dragon pendant and Kaida gasped, “The necklace I gave you for your birthday?” Kakashi nodded and rubbed at its engraved belly before taking her hand again, “Kai…what do you remember…from just before we got here?” Kaida bit her lip and briefly shut her eyes, “There was…ah…we were home. In the Leaf. We argued then Pain attacked…and I…no! Kami…no! You died. I…tried…to get to you...oh…I died too.” Kakashi swiped a thumb across her cheek, “I think we are in some kind of in-between. I’ve been to a place like this once before…” </p><p>Kaida’s head whipped up and she grabbed at his wrist, “Rengoku?! You’ve <em>been</em> here before?” Kakashi shook his head, “Not to this one. I guess they are all different, but I met my father once. Long after he had died…and just as I was dying…the setting was much different…just a campfire with him and I but we got to talk.” Kaida looked around and then back to his face, “Why was it so dark before? It’s so…<em>perfect </em>now. I don’t understand.” Kakashi shook his head and shrugged, “I think the way we died had something to do with that dark place. My father had died long before I got to him. When I thought I was done for, I had come to terms with what I had done in life, and so had he, but he needed me to know that, so he waited. It seemed he needed to right the wrongs he felt he had done when I was younger…so I didn’t have to fight to find him as I was ready to move on then. There was no test.” </p><p>Kaida ran her hand up his arm to his shoulder, “So…because we died the way we did and had, what, unfinished business we were thrown into that…that…<em>that</em>?” Kakashi nodded solemnly, “Seems like it. I’m no expert…I didn’t stay dead.” Kaida sighed and rested her forehead against his sternum, “Thank Kami for that. I would never have met you then. I’m sorry.” Kakashi lifted her chin, swiped his thumb across her pale pink bottom lip and frowned, “For what?” Kaida’s eye glistened with new tears, “I…I caused that…that terror of a place. All because of what I did to you before. We could have come straight here otherwise.” Kakashi pulled her in close to him and kissed the top of her head, “Kai, that wasn’t your fault. I had unfinished business too. I hurt you too. This is purgatory, not the ever after…it only gives you a few moments before you are judged…but it’s a way to find closure. I don’t know where we’ll end up next…or if we’ll even be able to…” </p><p>Kaida pulled away to look at him, “We were in that dark for what seemed like forever! So now you’re saying we can’t be like <em>this</em> forever?! Damn being judged! I have been judged my entire life! I will say what I need to and I will stay here for as long as it takes!” She spun around and began to march across the grass as she screamed out to the untimely world they were in, “I understand that we have died! I know that we can’t stay here forever! We are here inside of this purgatory to make amends but if you think you are going to end my time here with him before I have to say what I need to I will find what ever being in charge and…and…pull them to hell! Do you <em>hear </em>me?! I love him! I <em>love </em>him with every fiber of my being and you are going to let me tell <em>him </em>that! You are going to let me speak my heart because he gave me his and I gave him mine! He is the life I never got to live and even now it was taken too soon! If I had my way he would be saved and I would move on. I will never be worthy of his love but I will cherish it until…well, I’ve already died, doesn’t that prove that I will cherish it until the end of this insane timeline that lies here or in the spirit world?! So let me have this time with him! You will be told when I am done proving my love to him! Do you hear me?! Do you?!” The trees and brook seemed to quiet and even the flowers seemed to close in on themselves as she yelled out with her fiery passion.</p><p>Kaida took a deep breath and bowed as her tears fell, “Thank you for understanding…judge me as you will…but please…let me stay with him for a while…” Kakashi stared at her in wonder as she straightened and wiped at her tears, “Kai…what did you just do?" Kaida gasped and spun around to fling herself back into her arms, “Oh no, is..is our time running out because of what I said?!” Kakashi brushed her cheek and leaned in to kiss her forehead, “Time is different here…but my little dragon, our time was already up the minute we stopped truly breathing.” Kaida flinched in his embrace, “No. <em>No. </em>Kakashi, I’m so sorry…I love you and I didn’t mean those hateful horrible things I said. You have always had my heart and I have always kept yours. I’m so sorry I was so scared to let go. To have you and the Leaf become my forever home. I’m so sorry. I was cruel and unfair to you. When you got home that night, I should have just let you take me home! <em>Home</em>! It was <em>our </em>home and I knew that but I was too scared to accept it. Instead, I ran away…when I had no reason to. I’m sorry…I’m so sorry. You’ve never hurt me Kakashi! You never could. I’m the horrible one here.” </p><p>Kakashi grasped her tightly to his chest, “Kai…I remember all you said before…before we left that world. You said all of this and I knew you meant it then. The unfinished business was mine…” Kaida looked into his face and frowned, “I don’t understand…you didn’t do anything <em>wrong</em>.” Kakashi was shaking his head and running his fingers through her hair as he disagreed, “I’m sorry I never supported you like you needed me too. All I saw was a strong woman who didn’t want help and not Kaida who was quietly asking for it. I didn’t break my ways of growing up alone without a mother or father. I grew up self-sufficient and alone and had no idea what love really was until you came along but I never <em>asked</em>. I just assumed you’d slip your way into my world on your own and once I realized that wasn’t how you worked…it was too late. I’m so sorry, Kai. I love you more than I have loved anything…in that world and this one. Even the next. I’ll love you always, I just wish we’d had a bit more time...I wanted…I hoped…”</p><p>Kaida reached up and wiped away the tears streaming softly down his unmasked face as she shushed him gently, “We did get a bit more time. I’m sure not everyone gets the chance we have gotten. I love you and I only have one last request, will you kiss me and hold me until we have to go?” Kakashi reciprocated in brushing the tears glistening off of her cheeks and he leaned down to press his mouth against hers. His eyes shut tightly and he felt another wave of tears leak from his closed eyes. Their wet cheeks touched lightly, warm wind rustled their clothing and played in their hair, their lips spoke a million silent words as they kissed and they began to sway, the flowers brushing their ankles as they moved. This was their last dance. </p><p>Kakashi had pulled his lips from hers and nuzzled into her neck as they rocked back and forth to a melody only the two of them could hear but it was a song they both knew well. He felt a strange tingling begin in his toes as he stepped perfectly in sync with her and gasped to look down at his feet. Kaida followed his gaze and she panicked, “Kakashi! You’re fading! No! Please no!” Kaida grasped and pawed at his arms and torso and he wrapped his arms tightly around her. He trailed kisses down from the top of her head, her forehead, cheeks nose, chin, and back to her mouth. In between each desperate kiss, they affirmed their love for one another. Kakashi began to feel his shoulders tingling and he reached out once more to kiss her properly one final time but his hand went right through her. He was no longer solid, “Kai! I love you! <em>Never </em>forget that! I love you! I wanted forever with you.” Kaida was covering her mouth with her hands and shaking her head as she tried to stifle her cries, “No! Please! Kakashi! I love you too! Kami, I love you! You mean more to me than anything, you’re my home!”</p><p>Kakashi glanced at her tear-soaked face one final time and smiled just as the tingles crept up to his jaw, “I would have loved to have seen you in a dress like that walking towards me before you became my wife. You’re beautiful. I love you, Kaida Hikari.” He felt himself go completely numb and then there was nothing left of him.</p><p>~~~</p><p>Kaida sunk to her knees in the dewy grass and screamed, “Noooooo! I beg you! Don’t take him from me again! <em>Please</em>! Oh, Kami! Why?!” She bowed down and pressed her hands tightly together and began to pray between sobs, “Please…please…please! Let us have eternity together! Please let us live in the afterlife together! This can’t be it! This can’t be! I don’t want to go to Takamagahara if he’s not there with me! Please!”                </p><p>Kaida sat up startled as she felt a strange tingling in the bottoms of her feet. When she pulled them out from under her she could see the translucency that was now replacing her once-solid feet. She gasped and looked all around, “I…I’m scared! Is this it? Will I see him again?! Answer me! Someone…” The wind calmed to a quiet whisper, the willow trees rustled ever so softly as if they mourned in their now slight swaying back and forth and the little brook slowed it’s current to near stillness as if to give her a moment to herself and her grief as she continued to fade. </p><p>Kaida stared down at her hands as she flipped them back and forth and then the tingles crept up to her shoulders, then her neck. Panic set in and tears fell thickly from her eyes, “Kakashi…I love you. I hope I see you soon.” She took a deep breath as the sensation covered her head and then the meadow was empty and still once more and faded back into the void. </p>
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